Deck the Halls - Days 13-19

I have been making good progress on this shawl, despite having to tink back yesterday because I did not completely read the pattern row and got all the way to the end and did not have the correct number of stitches.  Sigh.  I also had a missing yarn over on a lace row last week, but was able to find that and fix it.  I am trying to remember to check and double check everything to make sure I don’t miss something.  I’m doing a lot of counting, but it beats tinking back and re-knitting.  I am going to go ahead and try to finish this up this weekend as I have tomorrow off.

Pattern:  Deck the Halls by Tabetha Hedrick

Yarn:  Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock and CashLuxe Spark

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Lato - Loop on

Expression Fiber Arts is also hosting a Winter Crochet Along for the Lato Shawl, which I decided to participate in.  I am not using the recommended yarn, which is Vellum Fingering - a blend of baby alpaca, silk and yak - as sometimes alpaca bothers my hands.  Instead I am using Blossom Fingering, which is a blend of Bamboo, Merino and Tencel.  I had bought a number of skeins last year when they were hosting a crochet along and a knit along of two boomerang shaped shawls.  I dropped out of those as they were just too boring, and required lots of counting to make sure the stitch counts remained correct.  I got off on both of them and just didn’t feel like figuring it out and making it right, so they both went off to the frog pond.  

The two colors I am using so far are Passion and Inflorescence.  I’m not sure what my other two colors are going to be yet.  I will decide when I get there.  The start was a bit of a challenge, especially the row of front post single crochet.  That took me several tries and I almost gave up.  I kept losing stitches because it was easy to miss a post and thus skip a stitch.  In the end I put stitch markers every 20 stitches and did a lot of counting, but at least I only had to rip back a few stitches when I came up short on a section.  I still came up 1 stitch short, but I sneaked one in and now I can’t even see where I did that.

I did work a gauge swatch, sort of.  I only worked a couple of rows to see how it worked up and what the fabric and stitches were like and how it felt to work, then I just started, but based on the picture I think it will come out close to the given measurements in the pattern.

Pattern:  Lato by Johanna Huck

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Blossom Fingering 

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Advertence - Clue 2 Done

This was a little bit of a slog, 32 rows of slipped stitches, with 32 rows of garter - alternating.  I did not adjust my needle size at all, as I had gone down 2 needle sizes on the main needle, and 4 needle sizes on the one called out for the slip stitch sections.  In the pattern notes it stated that the width grew 11 inches during blocking.  That just tells me it was knitted at too loose of a gauge, and I’m not going there.  It also explains why you need to go up the needle size for the slipped stitch sections, so that the gauge doesn’t end up changing on you.  I’m knitting on a needle size that is in the recommended range, and my fabric is lovely - not loose, but not too firm either - and I had no problem with a gauge change when I worked the slipped stitch section.  If you want a finished object that drapes, use a yarn that gives you that drape, don’t be fooled into thinking that knitting at a looser gauge is going to get you drape.  It does, sort of, but only at the cost of stitches that are loose and won’t hold their shape, which means that the finished object will not hold its shape.

Pattern:  Advertence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Mirage Sport

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Multivalence - Clue 2 Done

I finished up clue 2 last night.  I did not cut my first color until after I had worked the second clue.  I was glad that I hadn’t when I was working the first round of the second clue and discovered a mistake in the last round of the first clue, so I was easily able to rip back and fix that before moving on.  I did cut the first color today after taking the photo.  I will leave the second color attached until I work clue 3.  I am really enjoying crocheting with the Luster Sport, and the colors I have are gorgeous.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport in Zodiac Hues

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Deck the Halls - Days 6-12

I have also been managing to keep up with the 2022 Sweet Georgia Yarns Advent kit, and have managed to avoid tinking back by assiduously counting the stitches.  I use a row counter and count by 10s.  It works very well.  I did run short on color 6, but as I actually have two of these sets I raided my second set to get enough yarn to finish the row.  I am saving my leftovers from this set, and can use them when I work the crochet pattern with the second set, if I need to.

Pattern:  Deck the Halls by Tabetha Hedrick

Yarn:  Sweet Georgia Yarns Tough Love Sock and CashLuxe Spark

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

 

Fan Shawl 2 - One Skein Done!

This project has been riding around in my work bag, and I did manage to make some progress on it this past week, finishing the first skein and starting the second, so over half way done now.  When I laid it out to take a photo my cat Jezebel immediately settled on it.  Thankfully she is a pretty good kitty when it comes to my knitting and crochet.  She likes them, and will chew on dangling yarn if given the chance, but does not go out of her way to abscond with yarn or play with it.  Curling up on it is another matter.  But I certainly don’t blame her there.  She likes to watch me block projects, but does not mess about with them while they are blocking, stepping carefully around the knitting.  She also likes to lay on my blocking mats when they are not being used for blocking.  She likes to follow me around to see what I’m doing, and definitely likes to photo bomb.

Pattern:  Fan Shawl

Yarn:  Hand Painted Knitting Yarn Superwash Fine Merino

Needle:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

 

Multivalence - Clue 1 Done

The Expression Fiber Arts 2023 Mystery Crochet Along started last Tuesday.  I had bought the first recommended color in Mirage Sport, which is the same base as is being used for the year long mystery knit along, but once I started crocheting with it I decided I didn’t want to use it and pulled out my Zodiac Hues set in Luster Sport.  As with Advertence I went down on the hook size.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

 

Deck the Halls - Days 1-5

I have mentioned in the past that I have a number of Advent Calendar yarn sets in my stash.  This is the 2022 Sweet Georgia Yarns Advent Calendar.  I accidentally bought two.  Fortunately it comes with two patterns, one knit and one crochet.  This is the knit one.  Unfortunately there is no yarn information included so not only do I not know the yarn base - one sparkly, one not - I also don’t know the color names.  One of the projects on Ravelry does have the color names listed under the daily photos, so I can get them if I really want to.

The pattern isn’t too difficult, but it has increases on both right and wrong sides and I find that I do need to count my stitches regularly to make sure I haven’t lost one, or gained one, like I did last night when I fell asleep while knitting.

Pattern:  Deck the Halls by Tabetha Hedrick

Yarn:  Sweet Georgia Yarns

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Northern Crown - Finished!

This project ended up being set aside once I got to the last day while I finished up the Curvy Dragon.  I did finish it up on 29 January, but it took me until yesterday to block it.

The final clue for day 24 was just garter stitch to use up yarn, working as many repeats as you want.

Pattern:  Advent KALendar 2020 - Northern Crown - by Anna Dalvi

Yarn:  Zen Yarn Garden Superfine Glitter

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

 

Advertence - Clue 1 Done

The Expression Fiber Arts 2023 Mystery Knit Along started last Sunday.  I wasn’t planning on participating, but changed my mind.  I was going to knit from stash, but was out on there web site checking something else out and saw the Dramatic Hues set, right next too an Oopsy Purple Chive and they found their way into my cart.  So, I’m basically going with a two color version in purples.  I also went down on the needle size - the recommended needle for the pattern is bigger than the actual needle size recommended for the yarn itself, and I am not a fan of loose gauge knitting.  The yarn itself is dreamy to knit with.  It is 70% Merino, 10% Camel, 10% Cashmere Goat, 10% Bombyx.

The first clue is seed stitch, which I have not been a fan of, but the last Anna Dalvi Advent pattern had a lot of seed stitch in it, so I think I have gotten over that.

Pattern:  Advertence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Mirage Sport

Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)